Attending a conference almost always means travel. Love it or hate it, the travel experience goes with the territory. As a conference director, one of the best ways to increase the satisfaction level of conference attendees is to provide not only killer content but to also make them feel as though they are a welcomed guest in the host city. An interactive map is a great way to make them feel at home.
Providing resources that help get people acquainted with the host city as quickly as possible is one way to make travel more of a perk than a pain for the attendee. Do a good job playing host in your city and people will want to return year-after-year.
A great way to do this is by providing a resource directory that includes more than a map showing people where the venue is and how to get there. In our “Hosting Conferences and Events” series we are going to walk through various ways you can build a great online resource that shows people around your city without making it a full time job for you or your online content authors. The primary tool we are going to use is the Store Locator Plus® SaaS service. By using the service effectively you can keep costs down while providing easy-to-use interactive maps for your attendees.
Advanced
- 150 Locations
- 1,000 Map Views
- Extra map views billed at $5/1000 views
- Basic locator styling
Professional
- 5,000 Locations
- 5,000 Map Views
- Extra map views billed at $5/1000 views
- Unlimited Categories
- GPS Location Sensor
- CSV import and export
- Full control over search form and results layout
- Map color scheme and element styling
- Feature locations
- Directory listings
Enterprise
- 15,000 Locations
- 8,000 Map Views
- Extra map views billed at $5/1000 views
- Unlimited Categories
- GPS Location Sensor
- CSV import and export
- Full control over search form and results layout
- Map color scheme and element styling
- Feature locations
- Directory listings
- Scheduled CSV Imports
- Advanced Reporting
- Territories
- Cluster Map Markers
Interactive Map
In our first video on presenting local resources for a conference we are going to focus on the upcoming SyntaxCon that is coming up in May 2017 in Charleston, South Carolina. One of the first things people are going to look for is places to stay that are convenient to the main venue. With that in mind we are going to show how to setup an appropriate level of service and add some hotels to our map then simulate deployment on a live site. As we add to this series we will show how to refine the user experience and finally deploy to the general public.
On a related note, if you are planning on hosting a venue and are in need of a full-service consulting shop to help you get a site setup, please contact us.
Feature Requests
Looking for something special with your online maps? Cyber Sprocket Labs is now offering special pricing on Store Locator Plus® work.